With the current political situation in South Africa, there is a fear that we could be headed into a phase of political violence in the build up to an election as we saw in Zimbabwe. Now many would think that this is not possible in South Africa but believe me, anything can happen and the writing is already on the wall.

The newly formed Congress of the People (COPE) has already had some problems from ANC supporters who have tried to stop their meetings from taking place or just purely pitched up at the COPE meetings and started to make noise and chant ANC slogans. It is clear that there is a section of ANC supporters out there who do not like COPE and would want COPE to fail and one way of achieving that could be through violence.

On the other hand, there is no telling if COPE supporters themselves will start to interfere at ANC meetings and functions. The day that happens is when we could start to see supporters of the two parties clashing and violence will erupt.

We in South Africa do not want to see this day. Hundreds of lives were lost not too long ago before South Africa gained independence all because of political violence. Many wounds are still fresh from those days and we do not want a repeat. Supporters should respect the opposition and allow the opposition be it COPE, DA or whoever to be free to do what they want to do and at the end of the day allow people do vote freely and fairly.

We have seen what political violence can do in Zimbabwe. Innocent lives are lost and inturn no governance will preside over the country. Fear should not be struck into the people. One should not vote according to who is stronger in the physical fight but based on the principles set by the party.

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